User Guidelines

We welcome comments on the articles we publish, and we’re proud of the generally high standard of input, knowledge, and active engagement our readers bring to important issues. Cultivating a well-informed conversation about urban topics is a core component of our work. Commenters will need to have their first comment approved manually, but should be OK after that.

As a volunteer-run organisation, we work hard to maintain this platform as a space for accurate, respectful and informed discussion. If you notice any inaccuracies in posts, or have a concern with anything you see on the site, please get in touch.

We are not the government and we have no obligation to promote “free speech”. Enabling comments is a privilege we provide to you. If you don’t like what we’re doing here then go do something else.

To ensure conversations remain constructive, considerate and evidence-based, we ask everyone engaging with Greater Auckland to please observe these guidelines:

• • All comments should make a positive contribution to the discussion and stick to the topic.
  • Claims of fact should be evidence-based.
  • Don’t complain about the topic of posts or moderation decisions. If you don’t like what we’re doing there are plenty of other sites on the internet. Or get outside more.
  • Commenters are guests in this space. We invite you to behave accordingly, by treating other members of the community with civility and respect.
  • We encourage people to use their real names, especially those wishing to contribute frequently.
  • No insults or personal attacks (ad hominem); sexist, racist or other offensive comments.
  • No promotion of products and/or services.
  • No use of multiple anonymous identities.
  • We do not tolerate climate denial, conspiracy thinking, and other unhelpful flavours of misinformation on the issues we cover. None of us has time for that.

To keep conversations civil and constructive, we moderate comments as best we can. We reserve the right to delete or moderate comments, and to suspend or ban accounts as needed. The editors decide what is acceptable and their decisions are final. Again, if you don’t like our moderation decisions then you’re under no obligations to hang around – there are other things in life you could be doing. Moaning about editorial decisions will lead to ongoing deletion of comments.

Occasionally, unobjectionable comments or replies may be caught up by our moderation tools designed to discourage a tiny but persistent set of trolling behaviours. We appreciate your understanding as we strive to keep this a place for accurate, polite and productive conversations.

As readers and commenters, you help us set a positive tone for discussion of urban issues. Any questions, concerns or suggestions, feel free to get in touch.